Systems and methods for bitmap filtering when performing funnel queries

ABSTRACT

Data may be queried and analyzed in order to draw insights. One type of data query that may be performed is a funnel query. A funnel query is a query characterized by a sequence of events, e.g.: “In the last N days, how many unique users performed event A, then event B, and then event C”. Systems and methods for performing funnel queries are provided herein. In some embodiments, the speed at which a computer can answer a funnel query may be increased. In some embodiments, a bitmap is used to eliminate one or more sequences of events that would otherwise need to be traversed during the funnel query. In some embodiments, a sequence of events is stored across multiple data partitions, each data partition covering a different period of time.

FIELD

The present application relates to performing funnel queries, which aredata queries characterized by a sequence of events.

BACKGROUND

A data storage system may store large amounts of data that may bequeried and analyzed in order to draw insights. For example, in thecontext of e-commerce, an e-commerce platform may collect and storelarge amounts of data that may be queried and analyzed by merchants onthe e-commerce platform.

One type of data query that may be performed is a funnel query. A funnelquery is a query characterized by a sequence of events, e.g.: “In thelast N days, how many unique users performed event A, then event B, andthen event C”. The sequence of events in the funnel query will bereferred to as a “funnel”. Each event in the funnel will be referred toas a “funnel event”.

The following are two simple examples of funnel queries in the contextof e-commerce, and that may be of interest to a merchant: (1) “In thelast 30 days, how many people visited the webpage for my product PuppyCalendar, and then subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar”; (2) “In thelast week, how many people visited my homepage, used the search featureon the homepage, and then visited the product page for my product PuppyCalendar”.

The answer to the funnel query includes the answer to the specificquestion being asked in the funnel query, but may also include relatedinformation, e.g. information indicating the number of users that failedto progress past each event in the query. For example, if the funnelquery were: “In the last 30 days, how many people visited the webpagefor my product Puppy Calendar, and then subsequently bought a PuppyCalendar”, then the answer to the funnel query may be: “In the last 30days, 276 people visited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar, and23 of those 276 people subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar”.

It is desired to try to improve the computer implementation of a funnelquery in order to try to increase the speed at which a computer cananswer a funnel query.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods for performing funnel queries are disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed in which a bitmapis used to eliminate one or more sequences of events that otherwisewould need to be traversed during the funnel query. The funnel query maytherefore possibly be executed faster.

In some embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed in which asequence of events is stored across multiple data partitions, each datapartition covering a different period of time. Each period of time maybe relatively short in duration. This may allow for faster execution ofa funnel query that spans a short period of time. To accommodate funnelqueries that do not span a short period of time, memory may be used totrack the funnel event each user is at in the funnel at the start ofeach time period corresponding to a data partition.

In some embodiments, the methods may be performed within an e-commerceplatform. For example, data related to website visits and saletransactions may be stored for each merchant in a data storage system aspart of the e-commerce platform. A merchant may then use his/hermerchant device to submit funnel queries of interest. The funnel queriesmay be implemented in the manner described herein.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a computer-implementedmethod. The method may include accessing data stored in memory. The datamay be stored as a plurality of sequences. Each sequence of theplurality of sequences may correspond to a respective user, and eachsequence of the plurality of sequences may record a respective set ofevents that were performed by the respective user. The method mayfurther include performing a query on the data to identify which usersperformed a series of particular events, where the series of particularevents are defined by the query, and the series of particular eventsinclude a target event. Performing the query may include: obtaininginformation that indicates, for each sequence of the plurality ofsequences, whether or not the sequence includes the target event; usingthe information to identify a subset of the plurality of sequences forwhich each sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences includesthe target event; and searching for the series of particular events ineach sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences. A systemconfigured to perform the method is also provided.

According to another embodiment, there is provided anothercomputer-implemented method. The method may include accessing datastored in memory. The data may be stored in a plurality of datapartitions in the memory. Each data partition of the plurality of datapartitions may include a respective set of sequences. Each sequence ofthe respective set of sequences may correspond to a respective user.Each sequence of the respective set of sequences may record a respectiveset of events that were performed by the respective user. The method mayfurther include performing a query on the data to identify which ones ofa plurality of users performed a series of particular events, where theseries of particular events are defined by the query, and the series ofparticular events include a first event and a subsequent second event.Performing the query may include: searching for the series of particularevents in each of at least some of the sequences in a first datapartition; in response to determining that the first event is located ina particular sequence in the first data partition: determining aparticular user corresponding to the particular sequence, and storing amapping indicating that the first event was found for the particularuser; searching at least some of the sequences in a second datapartition, including: identifying that a given sequence in the seconddata partition corresponds to the particular user, accessing the mappingto determine that the first event was already found for the particularuser, and beginning searching the given sequence in the second datapartition for the subsequent second event. A system configured toperform the method is also provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be described, by way of example only, with reference tothe accompanying figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an e-commerce platform, according to oneembodiment;

FIG. 2 is an example of a home page of an administrator, according toone embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an e-commerce platform, according toanother embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates a system for performing funnel queries, according toone embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of six different data partitions storedfor a particular merchant;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a user-to-sequence mapping table;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example set of sequences for a particular datapartition for a particular time period;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example bitmap;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a plurality of bitmaps, each onecorresponding to a respective different event;

FIG. 10 illustrates a computer-implemented method, according to oneembodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates a series of events performed by ten different usersover three days, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a look-up-table that tracks the funnel event eachuser is at in the funnel at the start of each time period, according toone embodiment;

FIG. 13 illustrates a computer-implemented method, according to anotherembodiment; and

FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate a user interface of a merchant device,according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For illustrative purposes, specific example embodiments will now beexplained in greater detail below in conjunction with the figures.

Example e-Commerce Platform

In some embodiments, the methods disclosed herein may be performed on orin association with an e-commerce platform. Therefore, an example of ane-commerce platform will be described.

FIG. 1 illustrates an e-commerce platform 100, according to oneembodiment.

The e-commerce platform 100 may be used to provide merchant products andservices to customers. While the disclosure contemplates using theapparatus, system, and process to purchase products and services, forsimplicity the description herein will refer to products. All referencesto products throughout this disclosure should also be understood to bereferences to products and/or services, including physical products,digital content, tickets, subscriptions, services to be provided, andthe like.

While the disclosure throughout contemplates that a ‘merchant’ and a‘customer’ may be more than individuals, for simplicity the descriptionherein may generally refer to merchants and customers as such. Allreferences to merchants and customers throughout this disclosure shouldalso be understood to be references to groups of individuals, companies,corporations, computing entities, and the like, and may representfor-profit or not-for-profit exchange of products. Further, while thedisclosure throughout refers to ‘merchants’ and ‘customers’, anddescribes their roles as such, the e-commerce platform 100 should beunderstood to more generally support users in an e-commerce environment,and all references to merchants and customers throughout this disclosureshould also be understood to be references to users, such as where auser is a merchant-user (e.g., a seller, retailer, wholesaler, orprovider of products), a customer-user (e.g., a buyer, purchase agent,or user of products), a prospective user (e.g., a user browsing and notyet committed to a purchase, a user evaluating the e-commerce platform100 for potential use in marketing and selling products, and the like),a service provider user (e.g., a shipping provider 112, a financialprovider, and the like), a company or corporate user (e.g., a companyrepresentative for purchase, sales, or use of products; an enterpriseuser; a customer relations or customer management agent, and the like),an information technology user, a computing entity user (e.g., acomputing bot for purchase, sales, or use of products), and the like.

The e-commerce platform 100 may provide a centralized system forproviding merchants with online resources and facilities for managingtheir business. The facilities described herein may be deployed in partor in whole through a machine that executes computer software, modules,program codes, and/or instructions on one or more processors which maybe part of or external to the platform 100. Merchants may utilize thee-commerce platform 100 for managing commerce with customers, such as byimplementing an e-commerce experience with customers through an onlinestore 138, through channels 110A-B, through POS devices 152 in physicallocations (e.g., a physical storefront or other location such as througha kiosk, terminal, reader, printer, 3D printer, and the like), bymanaging their business through the e-commerce platform 100, and byinteracting with customers through a communications facility 129 of thee-commerce platform 100, or any combination thereof. A merchant mayutilize the e-commerce platform 100 as a sole commerce presence withcustomers, or in conjunction with other merchant commerce facilities,such as through a physical store (e.g., ‘brick-and-mortar’ retailstores), a merchant off-platform website 104 (e.g., a commerce Internetwebsite or other internet or web property or asset supported by or onbehalf of the merchant separately from the e-commerce platform), and thelike. However, even these ‘other’ merchant commerce facilities may beincorporated into the e-commerce platform, such as where POS devices 152in a physical store of a merchant are linked into the e-commerceplatform 100, where a merchant off-platform website 104 is tied into thee-commerce platform 100, such as through ‘buy buttons’ that link contentfrom the merchant off platform website 104 to the online store 138, andthe like.

The online store 138 may represent a multitenant facility comprising aplurality of virtual storefronts. In embodiments, merchants may manageone or more storefronts in the online store 138, such as through amerchant device 102 (e.g., computer, laptop computer, mobile computingdevice, and the like), and offer products to customers through a numberof different channels 110A-B (e.g., an online store 138; a physicalstorefront through a POS device 152; electronic marketplace, through anelectronic buy button integrated into a website or social media channelsuch as on a social network, social media page, social media messagingsystem; and the like). A merchant may sell across channels 110A-B andthen manage their sales through the e-commerce platform 100, wherechannels 110A may be provided internal to the e-commerce platform 100 orfrom outside the e-commerce channel 110B. A merchant may sell in theirphysical retail store, at pop ups, through wholesale, over the phone,and the like, and then manage their sales through the e-commerceplatform 100. A merchant may employ all or any combination of these,such as maintaining a business through a physical storefront utilizingPOS devices 152, maintaining a virtual storefront through the onlinestore 138, and utilizing a communication facility 129 to leveragecustomer interactions and analytics 132 to improve the probability ofsales. Throughout this disclosure the terms online store 138 andstorefront may be used synonymously to refer to a merchant's onlinee-commerce offering presence through the e-commerce platform 100, wherean online store 138 may refer to the multitenant collection ofstorefronts supported by the e-commerce platform 100 (e.g., for aplurality of merchants) or to an individual merchant's storefront (e.g.,a merchant's online store).

In some embodiments, a customer may interact through a customer device150 (e.g., computer, laptop computer, mobile computing device, and thelike), a POS device 152 (e.g., retail device, a kiosk, an automatedcheckout system, and the like), or any other commerce interface deviceknown in the art. The e-commerce platform 100 may enable merchants toreach customers through the online store 138, through POS devices 152 inphysical locations (e.g., a merchant's storefront or elsewhere), topromote commerce with customers through dialog via electroniccommunication facility 129, and the like, providing a system forreaching customers and facilitating merchant services for the real orvirtual pathways available for reaching and interacting with customers.

In some embodiments, and as described further herein, the e-commerceplatform 100 may be implemented through a processing facility includinga processor and a memory, the processing facility storing a set ofinstructions that, when executed, cause the e-commerce platform 100 toperform the e-commerce and support functions as described herein. Theprocessing facility may be part of a server, client, networkinfrastructure, mobile computing platform, cloud computing platform,stationary computing platform, or other computing platform, and provideelectronic connectivity and communications between and amongst theelectronic components of the e-commerce platform 100, merchant devices102, payment gateways 106, application developers, channels 110A-B,shipping providers 112, customer devices 150, point of sale devices 152,and the like. The e-commerce platform 100 may be implemented as a cloudcomputing service, a software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as aservice (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), desktop as a Service(DaaS), managed software as a service (MSaaS), mobile backend as aservice (MBaaS), information technology management as a service(ITMaaS), and the like, such as in a software and delivery model inwhich software is licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted(e.g., accessed by users using a client (for example, a thin client) viaa web browser or other application, accessed through by POS devices, andthe like). In some embodiments, elements of the e-commerce platform 100may be implemented to operate on various platforms and operatingsystems, such as iOS, Android, on the web, and the like (e.g., theadministrator 114 being implemented in multiple instances for a givenonline store for iOS, Android, and for the web, each with similarfunctionality).

In some embodiments, the online store 138 may be served to a customerdevice 150 through a webpage provided by a server of the e-commerceplatform 100. The server may receive a request for the webpage from abrowser or other application installed on the customer device 150, wherethe browser (or other application) connects to the server through an IPAddress, the IP address obtained by translating a domain name. Inreturn, the server sends back the requested webpage. Webpages may bewritten in or include Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), templatelanguage, JavaScript, and the like, or any combination thereof. Forinstance, HTML is a computer language that describes static informationfor the webpage, such as the layout, format, and content of the webpage.Website designers and developers may use the template language to buildwebpages that combine static content, which is the same on multiplepages, and dynamic content, which changes from one page to the next. Atemplate language may make it possible to re-use the static elementsthat define the layout of a webpage, while dynamically populating thepage with data from an online store. The static elements may be writtenin HTML, and the dynamic elements written in the template language. Thetemplate language elements in a file may act as placeholders, such thatthe code in the file is compiled and sent to the customer device 150 andthen the template language is replaced by data from the online store138, such as when a theme is installed. The template and themes mayconsider tags, objects, and filters. The client device web browser (orother application) then renders the page accordingly.

In some embodiments, online stores 138 may be served by the e-commerceplatform 100 to customers, where customers can browse and purchase thevarious products available (e.g., add them to a cart, purchaseimmediately through a buy-button, and the like). Online stores 138 maybe served to customers in a transparent fashion without customersnecessarily being aware that it is being provided through the e-commerceplatform 100 (rather than directly from the merchant). Merchants may usea merchant configurable domain name, a customizable HTML theme, and thelike, to customize their online store 138. Merchants may customize thelook and feel of their website through a theme system, such as wheremerchants can select and change the look and feel of their online store138 by changing their theme while having the same underlying product andbusiness data shown within the online store's product hierarchy. Themesmay be further customized through a theme editor, a design interfacethat enables users to customize their website's design with flexibility.Themes may also be customized using theme-specific settings that changeaspects, such as specific colors, fonts, and pre-built layout schemes.The online store may implement a content management system for websitecontent. Merchants may author blog posts or static pages and publishthem to their online store 138, such as through blogs, articles, and thelike, as well as configure navigation menus. Merchants may upload images(e.g., for products), video, content, data, and the like to thee-commerce platform 100, such as for storage by the system (e.g. as data134). In some embodiments, the e-commerce platform 100 may providefunctions for resizing images, associating an image with a product,adding and associating text with an image, adding an image for a newproduct variant, protecting images, and the like.

As described herein, the e-commerce platform 100 may provide merchantswith transactional facilities for products through a number of differentchannels 110A-B, including the online store 138, over the telephone, aswell as through physical POS devices 152 as described herein. Thee-commerce platform 100 may include business support services 116, anadministrator 114, and the like associated with running an on-linebusiness, such as providing a domain service 118 associated with theironline store, payment services 120 for facilitating transactions with acustomer, shipping services 122 for providing customer shipping optionsfor purchased products, risk and insurance services 124 associated withproduct protection and liability, merchant billing, and the like.Services 116 may be provided via the e-commerce platform 100 or inassociation with external facilities, such as through a payment gateway106 for payment processing, shipping providers 112 for expediting theshipment of products, and the like.

In some embodiments, the e-commerce platform 100 may provide forintegrated shipping services 122 (e.g., through an e-commerce platformshipping facility or through a third-party shipping carrier), such asproviding merchants with real-time updates, tracking, automatic ratecalculation, bulk order preparation, label printing, and the like.

FIG. 2 depicts a non-limiting embodiment for a home page of anadministrator 114, which may show information about daily tasks, astore's recent activity, and the next steps a merchant can take to buildtheir business. In some embodiments, a merchant may log in toadministrator 114 via a merchant device 102 such as from a desktopcomputer or mobile device, and manage aspects of their online store 138,such as viewing the online store's 138 recent activity, updating theonline store's 138 catalog, managing orders, recent visits activity,total orders activity, and the like. In some embodiments, the merchantmay be able to access the different sections of administrator 114 byusing the sidebar, such as shown on FIG. 2. Sections of theadministrator 114 may include various interfaces for accessing andmanaging core aspects of a merchant's business, including orders,products, customers, available reports and discounts. The administrator114 may also include interfaces for managing sales channels for a storeincluding the online store, mobile application(s) made available tocustomers for accessing the store (Mobile App), POS devices, and/or abuy button. The administrator 114 may also include interfaces formanaging applications (Apps) installed on the merchant's account;settings applied to a merchant's online store 138 and account. Amerchant may use a search bar to find products, pages, or otherinformation. Depending on the device 102 or software application themerchant is using, they may be enabled for different functionalitythrough the administrator 114. For instance, if a merchant logs in tothe administrator 114 from a browser, they may be able to manage allaspects of their online store 138. If the merchant logs in from theirmobile device (e.g. via a mobile application), they may be able to viewall or a subset of the aspects of their online store 138, such asviewing the online store's 138 recent activity, updating the onlinestore's 138 catalog, managing orders, and the like.

More detailed information about commerce and visitors to a merchant'sonline store 138 may be viewed through acquisition reports or metrics,such as displaying a sales summary for the merchant's overall business,specific sales and engagement data for active sales channels, and thelike. Reports may include, acquisition reports, behavior reports,customer reports, finance reports, marketing reports, sales reports,custom reports, and the like. The merchant may be able to view salesdata for different channels 110A-B from different periods of time (e.g.,days, weeks, months, and the like), such as by using drop-down menus. Anoverview dashboard may be provided for a merchant that wants a moredetailed view of the store's sales and engagement data. An activity feedin the home metrics section may be provided to illustrate an overview ofthe activity on the merchant's account. For example, by clicking on a‘view all recent activity’ dashboard button, the merchant may be able tosee a longer feed of recent activity on their account. A home page mayshow notifications about the merchant's online store 138, such as basedon account status, growth, recent customer activity, and the like.Notifications may be provided to assist a merchant with navigatingthrough a process, such as capturing a payment, marking an order asfulfilled, archiving an order that is complete, and the like.

The e-commerce platform 100 may provide for a communications facility129 and associated merchant interface for providing electroniccommunications and marketing, such as utilizing an electronic messagingaggregation facility for collecting and analyzing communicationinteractions between merchants, customers, merchant devices 102,customer devices 150, POS devices 152, and the like, to aggregate andanalyze the communications, such as for increasing the potential forproviding a sale of a product, and the like. For instance, a customermay have a question related to a product, which may produce a dialogbetween the customer and the merchant (or automated processor-basedagent representing the merchant), where the communications facility 129analyzes the interaction and provides analysis to the merchant on how toimprove the probability for a sale.

The e-commerce platform 100 may provide a financial facility 120 forsecure financial transactions with customers, such as through a securecard server environment. The e-commerce platform 100 may store creditcard information, such as in payment card industry data (PCI)environments (e.g., a card server), to reconcile financials, billmerchants, perform automated clearing house (ACH) transfers between ane-commerce platform 100 financial institution account and a merchant'sback account (e.g., when using capital), and the like. These systems mayhave Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance and a high level of diligencerequired in their development and operation. The financial facility 120may also provide merchants with financial support, such as through thelending of capital (e.g., lending funds, cash advances, and the like)and provision of insurance. In addition, the e-commerce platform 100 mayprovide for a set of marketing and partner services and control therelationship between the e-commerce platform 100 and partners. They alsomay connect and onboard new merchants with the e-commerce platform 100.These services may enable merchant growth by making it easier formerchants to work across the e-commerce platform 100. Through theseservices, merchants may be provided help facilities via the e-commerceplatform 100.

In some embodiments, online store 138 may support a great number ofindependently administered storefronts and process a large volume oftransactional data on a daily basis for a variety of products.Transactional data may include customer contact information, billinginformation, shipping information, information on products purchased,information on services rendered, and any other information associatedwith business through the e-commerce platform 100. In some embodiments,the e-commerce platform 100 may store this data in a data facility 134.The transactional data may be processed to produce analytics 132, whichin turn may be provided to merchants or third-party commerce entities,such as providing consumer trends, marketing and sales insights,recommendations for improving sales, evaluation of customer behaviors,marketing and sales modeling, trends in fraud, and the like, related toonline commerce, and provided through dashboard interfaces, throughreports, and the like. The e-commerce platform 100 may store informationabout business and merchant transactions, and the data facility 134 mayhave many ways of enhancing, contributing, refining, and extractingdata, where over time the collected data may enable improvements toaspects of the e-commerce platform 100.

Referring again to FIG. 1, in some embodiments the e-commerce platform100 may be configured with a commerce management engine 136 for contentmanagement, task automation and data management to enable support andservices to the plurality of online stores 138 (e.g., related toproducts, inventory, customers, orders, collaboration, suppliers,reports, financials, risk and fraud, and the like), but be extensiblethrough applications 142A-B that enable greater flexibility and customprocesses required for accommodating an ever-growing variety of merchantonline stores, POS devices, products, and services, where applications142A may be provided internal to the e-commerce platform 100 orapplications 142B from outside the e-commerce platform 100. In someembodiments, an application 142A may be provided by the same partyproviding the platform 100 or by a different party. In some embodiments,an application 142B may be provided by the same party providing theplatform 100 or by a different party. The commerce management engine 136may be configured for flexibility and scalability through portioning(e.g., sharding) of functions and data, such as by customer identifier,order identifier, online store identifier, and the like. The commercemanagement engine 136 may accommodate store-specific business logic andin some embodiments, may incorporate the administrator 114 and/or theonline store 138.

The commerce management engine 136 includes base or “core” functions ofthe e-commerce platform 100, and as such, as described herein, not allfunctions supporting online stores 138 may be appropriate for inclusion.For instance, functions for inclusion into the commerce managementengine 136 may need to exceed a core functionality threshold throughwhich it may be determined that the function is core to a commerceexperience (e.g., common to a majority of online store activity, such asacross channels, administrator interfaces, merchant locations,industries, product types, and the like), is re-usable across onlinestores 138 (e.g., functions that can be re-used/modified across corefunctions), limited to the context of a single online store 138 at atime (e.g., implementing an online store ‘isolation principle’, wherecode should not be able to interact with multiple online stores 138 at atime, ensuring that online stores 138 cannot access each other's data),provide a transactional workload, and the like. Maintaining control ofwhat functions are implemented may enable the commerce management engine136 to remain responsive, as many required features are either serveddirectly by the commerce management engine 136 or enabled through aninterface 140A-B, such as by its extension through an applicationprogramming interface (API) connection to applications 142A-B andchannels 110A-B, where interfaces 140A may be provided to applications142A and/or channels 110A inside the e-commerce platform 100 or throughinterfaces 140B provided to applications 142B and/or channels 110Boutside the e-commerce platform 100. Generally, the platform 100 mayinclude interfaces 140A-B (which may be extensions, connectors, APIs,and the like) which facilitate connections to and communications withother platforms, systems, software, data sources, code and the like.Such interfaces 140A-B may be an interface 140A of the commercemanagement engine 136 or an interface 140B of the platform 100 moregenerally. If care is not given to restricting functionality in thecommerce management engine 136, responsiveness could be compromised,such as through infrastructure degradation through slow databases ornon-critical backend failures, through catastrophic infrastructurefailure such as with a data center going offline, through new code beingdeployed that takes longer to execute than expected, and the like. Toprevent or mitigate these situations, the commerce management engine 136may be configured to maintain responsiveness, such as throughconfiguration that utilizes timeouts, queues, back-pressure to preventdegradation, and the like.

Although isolating online store data is important to maintaining dataprivacy between online stores 138 and merchants, there may be reasonsfor collecting and using cross-store data, such as for example, with anorder risk assessment system or a platform payment facility, both ofwhich require information from multiple online stores 138 to performwell. In some embodiments, rather than violating the isolationprinciple, it may be preferred to move these components out of thecommerce management engine 136 and into their own infrastructure withinthe e-commerce platform 100.

In some embodiments, the e-commerce platform 100 may provide for aplatform payment facility 120, which is another example of a componentthat utilizes data from the commerce management engine 136 but may belocated outside so as to not violate the isolation principle. Theplatform payment facility 120 may allow customers interacting withonline stores 138 to have their payment information stored safely by thecommerce management engine 136 such that they only have to enter itonce. When a customer visits a different online store 138, even ifthey've never been there before, the platform payment facility 120 mayrecall their information to enable a more rapid and correct check out.This may provide a cross-platform network effect, where the e-commerceplatform 100 becomes more useful to its merchants as more merchantsjoin, such as because there are more customers who checkout more oftenbecause of the ease of use with respect to customer purchases. Tomaximize the effect of this network, payment information for a givencustomer may be retrievable from an online store's checkout, allowinginformation to be made available globally across online stores 138. Itwould be difficult and error prone for each online store 138 to be ableto connect to any other online store 138 to retrieve the paymentinformation stored there. As a result, the platform payment facility maybe implemented external to the commerce management engine 136.

For those functions that are not included within the commerce managementengine 136, applications 142A-B provide a way to add features to thee-commerce platform 100. Applications 142A-B may be able to access andmodify data on a merchant's online store 138, perform tasks through theadministrator 114, create new flows for a merchant through a userinterface (e.g., that is surfaced through extensions/API), and the like.Merchants may be enabled to discover and install applications 142A-Bthrough application search, recommendations, and support 128. In someembodiments, core products, core extension points, applications, and theadministrator 114 may be developed to work together. For instance,application extension points may be built inside the administrator 114so that core features may be extended by way of applications, which maydeliver functionality to a merchant through the extension.

In some embodiments, applications 142A-B may deliver functionality to amerchant through the interface 140A-B, such as where an application142A-B is able to surface transaction data to a merchant (e.g., App:“Engine, surface my app data in mobile and web admin using the embeddedapp SDK”), and/or where the commerce management engine 136 is able toask the application to perform work on demand (Engine: “App, give me alocal tax calculation for this checkout”).

Applications 142A-B may support online stores 138 and channels 110A-B,provide for merchant support, integrate with other services, and thelike. Where the commerce management engine 136 may provide thefoundation of services to the online store 138, the applications 142A-Bmay provide a way for merchants to satisfy specific and sometimes uniqueneeds. Different merchants will have different needs, and so may benefitfrom different applications 142A-B. Applications 142A-B may be betterdiscovered through the e-commerce platform 100 through development of anapplication taxonomy (categories) that enable applications to be taggedaccording to a type of function it performs for a merchant; throughapplication data services that support searching, ranking, andrecommendation models; through application discovery interfaces such asan application store, home information cards, an application settingspage; and the like.

Applications 142A-B may be connected to the commerce management engine136 through an interface 140A-B, such as utilizing APIs to expose thefunctionality and data available through and within the commercemanagement engine 136 to the functionality of applications (e.g.,through REST, GraphQL, and the like). For instance, the e-commerceplatform 100 may provide API interfaces 140A-B to merchant andpartner-facing products and services, such as including applicationextensions, process flow services, developer-facing resources, and thelike. With customers more frequently using mobile devices for shopping,applications 142A-B related to mobile use may benefit from moreextensive use of APIs to support the related growing commerce traffic.The flexibility offered through use of applications and APIs (e.g., asoffered for application development) enable the e-commerce platform 100to better accommodate new and unique needs of merchants (and internaldevelopers through internal APIs) without requiring constant change tothe commerce management engine 136, thus providing merchants what theyneed when they need it. For instance, shipping services 122 may beintegrated with the commerce management engine 136 through a shipping orcarrier service API, thus enabling the e-commerce platform 100 toprovide shipping service functionality without directly impacting coderunning in the commerce management engine 136.

Many merchant problems may be solved by letting partners improve andextend merchant workflows through application development, such asproblems associated with back-office operations (merchant-facingapplications 142A-B) and in the online store 138 (customer-facingapplications 142A-B). As a part of doing business, many merchants willuse mobile and web related applications on a daily basis for back-officetasks (e.g., merchandising, inventory, discounts, fulfillment, and thelike) and online store tasks (e.g., applications related to their onlineshop, for flash-sales, new product offerings, and the like), whereapplications 142A-B, through extension/API 140A-B, help make productseasy to view and purchase in a fast growing marketplace. In someembodiments, partners, application developers, internal applicationsfacilities, and the like, may be provided with a software developmentkit (SDK), such as through creating a frame within the administrator 114that sandboxes an application interface. In some embodiments, theadministrator 114 may not have control over nor be aware of what happenswithin the frame. The SDK may be used in conjunction with a userinterface kit to produce interfaces that mimic the look and feel of thee-commerce platform 100, such as acting as an extension of the commercemanagement engine 136.

Applications 142A-B that utilize APIs may pull data on demand, but oftenthey also need to have data pushed when updates occur. Update events maybe implemented in a subscription model, such as for example, customercreation, product changes, or order cancelation. Update events mayprovide merchants with needed updates with respect to a changed state ofthe commerce management engine 136, such as for synchronizing a localdatabase, notifying an external integration partner, and the like.Update events may enable this functionality without having to poll thecommerce management engine 136 all the time to check for updates, suchas through an update event subscription. In some embodiments, when achange related to an update event subscription occurs, the commercemanagement engine 136 may post a request, such as to a predefinedcallback URL. The body of this request may contain a new state of theobject and a description of the action or event. Update eventsubscriptions may be created manually, in the administrator facility114, or automatically (e.g., via the API 140A-B). In some embodiments,update events may be queued and processed asynchronously from a statechange that triggered them, which may produce an update eventnotification that is not distributed in real-time.

In some embodiments, the e-commerce platform 100 may provide applicationsearch, recommendation and support 128. Application search,recommendation and support 128 may include developer products and toolsto aid in the development of applications, an application dashboard(e.g., to provide developers with a development interface, toadministrators for management of applications, to merchants forcustomization of applications, and the like), facilities for installingand providing permissions with respect to providing access to anapplication 142A-B (e.g., for public access, such as where criteria mustbe met before being installed, or for private use by a merchant),application searching to make it easy for a merchant to search forapplications 142A-B that satisfy a need for their online store 138,application recommendations to provide merchants with suggestions on howthey can improve the user experience through their online store 138, adescription of core application capabilities within the commercemanagement engine 136, and the like. These support facilities may beutilized by application development performed by any entity, includingthe merchant developing their own application 142A-B, a third-partydeveloper developing an application 142A-B (e.g., contracted by amerchant, developed on their own to offer to the public, contracted foruse in association with the e-commerce platform 100, and the like), oran application 142A or 142B being developed by internal personalresources associated with the e-commerce platform 100. In someembodiments, applications 142A-B may be assigned an applicationidentifier (ID), such as for linking to an application (e.g., through anAPI), searching for an application, making application recommendations,and the like.

The commerce management engine 136 may include base functions of thee-commerce platform 100 and expose these functions through APIs 140A-Bto applications 142A-B. The APIs 140A-B may enable different types ofapplications built through application development. Applications 142A-Bmay be capable of satisfying a great variety of needs for merchants butmay be grouped roughly into three categories: customer-facingapplications, merchant-facing applications, integration applications,and the like. Customer-facing applications 142A-B may include onlinestore 138 or channels 110A-B that are places where merchants can listproducts and have them purchased (e.g., the online store, applicationsfor flash sales (e.g., merchant products or from opportunistic salesopportunities from third-party sources), a mobile store application, asocial media channel, an application for providing wholesale purchasing,and the like). Merchant-facing applications 142A-B may includeapplications that allow the merchant to administer their online store138 (e.g., through applications related to the web or website or tomobile devices), run their business (e.g., through applications relatedto POS devices), to grow their business (e.g., through applicationsrelated to shipping (e.g., drop shipping), use of automated agents, useof process flow development and improvements), and the like. Integrationapplications may include applications that provide useful integrationsthat participate in the running of a business, such as shippingproviders 112 and payment gateways.

In some embodiments, an application developer may use an applicationproxy to fetch data from an outside location and display it on the pageof an online store 138. Content on these proxy pages may be dynamic,capable of being updated, and the like. Application proxies may beuseful for displaying image galleries, statistics, custom forms, andother kinds of dynamic content. The core-application structure of thee-commerce platform 100 may allow for an increasing number of merchantexperiences to be built in applications 142A-B so that the commercemanagement engine 136 can remain focused on the more commonly utilizedbusiness logic of commerce.

The e-commerce platform 100 provides an online shopping experiencethrough a curated system architecture that enables merchants to connectwith customers in a flexible and transparent manner. A typical customerexperience may be better understood through an embodiment examplepurchase workflow, where the customer browses the merchant's products ona channel 110A-B, adds what they intend to buy to their cart, proceedsto checkout, and pays for the content of their cart resulting in thecreation of an order for the merchant. The merchant may then review andfulfill (or cancel) the order. The product is then delivered to thecustomer. If the customer is not satisfied, they might return theproducts to the merchant.

In an example embodiment, a customer may browse a merchant's products ona channel 110A-B. A channel 110A-B is a place where customers can viewand buy products. In some embodiments, channels 110A-B may be modeled asapplications 142A-B (a possible exception being the online store 138,which is integrated within the commence management engine 136). Amerchandising component may allow merchants to describe what they wantto sell and where they sell it. The association between a product and achannel may be modeled as a product publication and accessed by channelapplications, such as via a product listing API. A product may have manyoptions, like size and color, and many variants that expand theavailable options into specific combinations of all the options, likethe variant that is extra-small and green, or the variant that is sizelarge and blue. Products may have at least one variant (e.g., a “defaultvariant” is created for a product without any options). To facilitatebrowsing and management, products may be grouped into collections,provided product identifiers (e.g., stock keeping unit (SKU)) and thelike. Collections of products may be built by either manuallycategorizing products into one (e.g., a custom collection), by buildingrulesets for automatic classification (e.g., a smart collection), andthe like. Products may be viewed as 2D images, 3D images, rotating viewimages, through a virtual or augmented reality interface, and the like.

In some embodiments, the customer may add what they intend to buy totheir cart (in an alternate embodiment, a product may be purchaseddirectly, such as through a buy button as described herein). Customersmay add product variants to their shopping cart. The shopping cart modelmay be channel specific. The online store 138 cart may be composed ofmultiple cart line items, where each cart line item tracks the quantityfor a product variant. Merchants may use cart scripts to offer specialpromotions to customers based on the content of their cart. Since addinga product to a cart does not imply any commitment from the customer orthe merchant, and the expected lifespan of a cart may be in the order ofminutes (not days), carts may be persisted to an ephemeral data store.

The customer then proceeds to checkout. A checkout component mayimplement a web checkout as a customer-facing order creation process. Acheckout API may be provided as a computer-facing order creation processused by some channel applications to create orders on behalf ofcustomers (e.g., for point of sale). Checkouts may be created from acart and record a customer's information such as email address, billing,and shipping details. On checkout, the merchant commits to pricing. Ifthe customer inputs their contact information but does not proceed topayment, the e-commerce platform 100 may provide an opportunity tore-engage the customer (e.g., in an abandoned checkout feature). Forthose reasons, checkouts can have much longer lifespans than carts(hours or even days) and are therefore persisted. Checkouts maycalculate taxes and shipping costs based on the customer's shippingaddress. Checkout may delegate the calculation of taxes to a taxcomponent and the calculation of shipping costs to a delivery component.A pricing component may enable merchants to create discount codes (e.g.,‘secret’ strings that when entered on the checkout apply new prices tothe items in the checkout). Discounts may be used by merchants toattract customers and assess the performance of marketing campaigns.Discounts and other custom price systems may be implemented on top ofthe same platform piece, such as through price rules (e.g., a set ofprerequisites that when met imply a set of entitlements). For instance,prerequisites may be items such as “the order subtotal is greater than$100” or “the shipping cost is under $10”, and entitlements may be itemssuch as “a 20% discount on the whole order” or “$10 off products X, Y,and Z”.

Customers then pay for the content of their cart resulting in thecreation of an order for the merchant. Channels 110A-B may use thecommerce management engine 136 to move money, currency or a store ofvalue (such as dollars or a cryptocurrency) to and from customers andmerchants. Communication with the various payment providers (e.g.,online payment systems, mobile payment systems, digital wallet, creditcard gateways, and the like) may be implemented within a paymentprocessing component. The actual interactions with the payment gateways106 may be provided through a card server environment. In someembodiments, the payment gateway 106 may accept international payment,such as integrating with leading international credit card processors.The card server environment may include a card server application, cardsink, hosted fields, and the like. This environment may act as thesecure gatekeeper of the sensitive credit card information. In someembodiments, most of the process may be orchestrated by a paymentprocessing job. The commerce management engine 136 may support manyother payment methods, such as through an offsite payment gateway 106(e.g., where the customer is redirected to another website), manually(e.g., cash), online payment methods (e.g., online payment systems,mobile payment systems, digital wallet, credit card gateways, and thelike), gift cards, and the like. At the end of the checkout process, anorder is created. An order is a contract of sale between the merchantand the customer where the merchant agrees to provide the goods andservices listed on the orders (e.g., order line items, shipping lineitems, and the like) and the customer agrees to provide payment(including taxes). This process may be modeled in a sales component.Channels 110A-B that do not rely on commerce management engine 136checkouts may use an order API to create orders. Once an order iscreated, an order confirmation notification may be sent to the customerand an order placed notification sent to the merchant via a notificationcomponent. Inventory may be reserved when a payment processing jobstarts to avoid over-selling (e.g., merchants may control this behaviorfrom the inventory policy of each variant). Inventory reservation mayhave a short time span (minutes) and may need to be very fast andscalable to support flash sales (e.g., a discount or promotion offeredfor a short time, such as targeting impulse buying). The reservation isreleased if the payment fails. When the payment succeeds, and an orderis created, the reservation is converted into a long-term inventorycommitment allocated to a specific location. An inventory component mayrecord where variants are stocked, and tracks quantities for variantsthat have inventory tracking enabled. It may decouple product variants(a customer facing concept representing the template of a productlisting) from inventory items (a merchant facing concept that representan item whose quantity and location is managed). An inventory levelcomponent may keep track of quantities that are available for sale,committed to an order or incoming from an inventory transfer component(e.g., from a vendor).

The merchant may then review and fulfill (or cancel) the order. A reviewcomponent may implement a business process merchant's use to ensureorders are suitable for fulfillment before actually fulfilling them.Orders may be fraudulent, require verification (e.g., ID checking), havea payment method which requires the merchant to wait to make sure theywill receive their funds, and the like. Risks and recommendations may bepersisted in an order risk model. Order risks may be generated from afraud detection tool, submitted by a third-party through an order riskAPI, and the like. Before proceeding to fulfillment, the merchant mayneed to capture the payment information (e.g., credit card information)or wait to receive it (e.g., via a bank transfer, check, and the like)and mark the order as paid. The merchant may now prepare the productsfor delivery. In some embodiments, this business process may beimplemented by a fulfillment component. The fulfillment component maygroup the line items of the order into a logical fulfillment unit ofwork based on an inventory location and fulfillment service. Themerchant may review, adjust the unit of work, and trigger the relevantfulfillment services, such as through a manual fulfillment service(e.g., at merchant managed locations) used when the merchant picks andpacks the products in a box, purchase a shipping label and input itstracking number, or just mark the item as fulfilled. A customfulfillment service may send an email (e.g., a location that doesn'tprovide an API connection). An API fulfillment service may trigger athird party, where the third-party application creates a fulfillmentrecord. A legacy fulfillment service may trigger a custom API call fromthe commerce management engine 136 to a third party (e.g., fulfillmentby Amazon). A gift card fulfillment service may provision (e.g.,generating a number) and activate a gift card. Merchants may use anorder printer application to print packing slips. The fulfillmentprocess may be executed when the items are packed in the box and readyfor shipping, shipped, tracked, delivered, verified as received by thecustomer, and the like.

If the customer is not satisfied, they may be able to return theproduct(s) to the merchant. The business process merchants may gothrough to “un-sell” an item may be implemented by a return component.Returns may consist of a variety of different actions, such as arestock, where the product that was sold actually comes back into thebusiness and is sellable again; a refund, where the money that wascollected from the customer is partially or fully returned; anaccounting adjustment noting how much money was refunded (e.g.,including if there was any restocking fees, or goods that weren'treturned and remain in the customer's hands); and the like. A return mayrepresent a change to the contract of sale (e.g., the order), and wherethe e-commerce platform 100 may make the merchant aware of complianceissues with respect to legal obligations (e.g., with respect to taxes).In some embodiments, the e-commerce platform 100 may enable merchants tokeep track of changes to the contract of sales over time, such asimplemented through a sales model component (e.g., an append-onlydate-based ledger that records sale-related events that happened to anitem).

Data Collection and Analysis in the e-Commerce Platform

In some embodiments, data related to merchants, buyers, website visits,and transactions may be stored in a data storage system as part of thee-commerce platform 100. A merchant may use their merchant device 102 tosubmit funnel queries of interest. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates thee-commerce platform 100 of FIG. 1, but with a stippled box 202encompassing the commerce management engine 136, data facility 134, andanalytics 132. The data is collected by the commerce management engine136 and stored in data facility 134. A merchant device 102 may submit afunnel query to the commerce management engine 136. A processor 203 inthe commerce management engine 136 may perform the funnel query on thedata in the data facility 134, e.g. to produce analytics 132. The funnelquery may be implemented as described herein.

However, although the embodiments described below may be implemented inassociation with an e-commerce platform (e.g. e-commerce platform 100,as in FIG. 3), the embodiments described below are not limited toimplementation in an e-commerce platform. Rather, most of theembodiments described below may be implemented in any system in whichfunnel queries are performed on data in a data storage system. The dataand the funnel queries do not have to relate to e-commerce. Therefore,much of the remaining explanation will not be tied to an implementationin an e-commerce platform.

Data Storage to Facilitate Funnel Queries

FIG. 4 illustrates a system 250 for performing funnel queries, accordingto one embodiment. The system 250 includes a funnel query engine 252 anda data storage system 262. In some embodiments, the data storage system262 may be or include one or more databases. In some embodiments, thedata storage system 262 may be implemented as distributed data storage.

The funnel query engine 252 includes a processor 254 for performing orcontrolling the operations of the funnel query engine 252, and anassociated memory 256. The processor 254 may be implemented by one ormore processors that execute instructions stored in the memory 256. Theinstructions, when executed, cause the processor 254 to perform theoperations of the funnel query engine 252. Alternatively, some or all ofthe processor 254 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such asan application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a graphics processingunit (GPU), or a programmed field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The funnel query engine 252 further includes a network interface 258 forcommunicating over a network (not illustrated). For example, the funnelquery engine 252 may use the network interface 258 to receive funnelquery requests from devices over the network, e.g. from device 255. Asanother example, the funnel query engine 252 may use the networkinterface 258 to access the data stored in the data storage system 262via the network. The structure of the network interface 258 depends onhow the funnel query engine 252 interfaces with the network. Examplestructures include: a network interface card (NIC), and/or a computerport (e.g. a physical outlet to which a plug or cable connects), and/ora network socket, etc.

The funnel query engine 252 may further include an API 260 for receivingfunnel query requests and for presenting the answer to each funnelquery. The API 260 is shown as a separate component, but it may beimplemented by the processor 254 and the network interface 258. Forexample, the structure of the API 260 may include the processor 254 andnetwork interface 258, where the processor 254 executes instructionsthat cause the processor 254 to: (1) receive API calls from devices(e.g. device 255) through the network interface 258; (2) perform afunnel query requested in the API call; and (3) send the answer to thefunnel query through the network interface 258.

In some embodiments, the system 250 may be implemented as part of thee-commerce platform illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, in which case thedevice 255 may be merchant device 102, the funnel query engine 252 maybe part of the commerce management engine 136 (and processor 254 may beprocessor 203 in FIG. 3), and the data storage system 262 may be datafacility 134.

The data storage system 262 includes one or more data partitions.Reference character 264 is used to refer to a single data partition.Each data partition 264 is implemented using physical memory, e.g.random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or othermemory technology. Data partition 264 is illustrated in more detail instippled bubble 266. Data partition 264 stores a plurality of differentsequences. Each sequence has a respective sequence identifier (ID) thatuniquely identifies the sequence. Each sequence is a stored discreteseries of events performed by a same particular user during a timeperiod. Because data partition 264 covers a finite period of time (timeperiod A in the illustrated example), the data partition 264 maysometimes be referred to as a “time shard”.

The events in the data partition are stored in a time-sequential manner.That is, for each sequence: the first event in the sequence occursearlier than all other events in that sequence; the last event in thesequence occurs later than all other events in that sequence; and everyother event in the sequence occurs later than the adjacent previousevent in the sequence and earlier than the adjacent subsequent event inthe sequence.

An event is a record of a discrete action that was performed by a user.In an e-commerce application, the data partition 264 may correspond to aparticular merchant, and each sequence may correspond to a respectivedifferent user (e.g. customer device) that visited the merchant's onlinestore. Examples of events could possibly include: “the user visits themerchant's home page”; “the user performs a search using the merchant'ssearch box”; “the user visits the merchant's product page for PuppyCalendar”; “the user leaves the product page for Puppy Calender”; “theuser visits the merchant's product page for Kitten Calendar”; “the userpurchases a Kitten Calendar”, etc. Each example in the previous list maybe its own event. An event may be stored as a set of one or morenumerical values, with each numerical value having a predefined mappingto understandable actions and information. For example, the event storedas “1526|0101|1110” may map to “at 3:26 pm the user visited the PuppyCalendar product webpage of the merchant's online store”. In thisexample mapping, “1526” maps to 3:26 pm, “0101” maps to “visited aproduct webpage”, and “1110” maps to “product=Puppy Calendar”.

In the data partition 264, each sequence corresponds to a respectiveunique user, e.g. a unique visitor/customer device in the context ofe-commerce. Sequences may be of different lengths. A “long sequence” isa sequence that includes many events, e.g. the user corresponding to thesequence performs many different actions during time period A. A “shortsequence” is a sequence that does not include many events, e.g. the usercorresponding to the sequence performs only a few events during timeperiod A.

One example way to implement data storage system 262 and data partition264 is to use TrailDB™. In TrailDB™, each sequence is referred to as a“trail”, and an event is stored as field:value pairs.

In operation, the funnel query engine 252 receives a request to performa funnel query on data stored in the data storage system 262. The funnelquery request may be received from another computing device over anetwork, e.g. from device 255, which may be a merchant device in ane-commerce system. Assuming the funnel query relates to actionsperformed during time period A, then the data from the data partition264 is queried to provide the answer to the funnel query. The answer maybe stored in memory 256 and/or transmitted to the device that requestedthe funnel query.

As an example, the funnel query may be “During time period A, how manyunique users visited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar, andthen subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar”. Each sequence in the datapartition 264 may be separately searched to: (1) first determine whetherthe sequence includes the event “user visits webpage for PuppyCalendar”, and if so (2) does the sequence include the subsequent event“user buys Puppy Calendar”. A sequence including both events in thecorrect time-order results in a match, which may cause a counter to beincremented. After all sequences are searched, the result of the counterreports how many unique users (unique sequences) performed the funnel.In some embodiments, the answer to the funnel query may also include anindication of how many users did not progress past each event, e.g. if276 users performed the event “user visits webpage for Puppy Calendar”,but the funnel was only found in 23 sequences (i.e. 23 matches), thenthe answer to the funnel query may be: “During time period A, 276 peoplevisited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar, and 23 of those 276people subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar”.

If TrailDB™ is used to implement the data partition 264, then traversingeach sequence (i.e. trail) may be performed using an EventFilter havinga batch size set to one. The EventFilter is initially set to search forthe first funnel event on the trail. If the first funnel event is found,then traversing the trail continues with the EventFilter updated to lookfor the second funnel event, and so on. The EventFilter is reset to thefirst funnel event between trails.

In some embodiments, the data storage system 262 stores multiple datapartitions, each covering a respective different time period and/or arespective different set of users. For example, FIG. 5 illustrates sixdifferent data partitions 264A-264F stored for a particular merchant.Three adjacent time periods are covered: time period A, time period B,and time period C. For example, time period A may be from 12:00 am to11:59 pm on May 1, 2019, time period B may be from 12:00 am to 11:59 pmon May 2, 2019, and time period C may be from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm onMay 3, 2019. In general, each time period may be of a different length.

Each one of the data partitions 264A-264F stores a different set ofsequences. Each sequence in a data partition includes a unique sequenceID and an associated stored sequence of events. Each event isillustrated using a box with rounded edges in FIG. 5, e.g. box 303 isone event. For compactness, a letter is used to represent an event inFIG. 5, e.g. letter X represents one event (e.g. X=“user visits thePuppy Calendar product webpage”), letter Y represents another event(e.g. Y=“user visits the Kitten Calendar product webpage”), etc. Anevent actually comprises a stored record of one or more values, e.g.event X at 303 stores “1526|0101|1110”.

The sequences in one data partition do not overlap with the sequences inany other data partition. For example, data partition 264A stores fivedifferent sequences, each one having a respective sequence ID and eachone storing the events performed by a respective user during time periodA. Data partition 264D stores two different sequences, each one alsohaving a respective sequence ID and each one also storing the eventsperformed by a respective user during time period A. However, thesequences in data partition 264A are different from the sequences indata partition 264D. In particular, in time period A there were sevenunique users, each one performing a respective sequence of events. Fiveof the users have their sequences stored in data partition 264A, and theother two users have their sequence stored in data partition 264D. Intime period B there were eight unique users, each one performing arespective sequence of events. Three of the users have their sequencestored in data partition 264B, and the other five users have theirsequence stored in data partition 264E. In time period C there wereseven unique users, each one performing a respective sequence of events.Four of the users have their sequence stored in data partition 264C, andthe other three users have their sequence stored in data partition 264F.

In general, a user may be mapped to different sequence IDs acrossdifferent partitions. An example mapping between users and sequence IDsis illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, during time period A, user Daveperforms the sequence of events stored as sequence ID #2 in datapartition 264D. During time period B, user Dave performs the sequence ofevents stored as sequence ID #2 in data partition 264E. During timeperiod C, user Dave performs the sequence of events stored as sequenceID #4 in data partition 264C. As another example, during time period A,user Fred performs the sequence of events stored as sequence ID #1 indata partition 264A. During time period B, user Fred performs thesequence of events stored as sequence ID #1 in data partition 264B.During time period C, user Fred does not perform any events and so hasno corresponding sequence stored in data partition 264C or datapartition 264F. Depending upon the implementation, there may be somerestrictions on the partitions and/or sequences to which a user may bemapped. For example, FIG. 5 illustrates that user Dave is mapped topartitions 264D, 264E, and 264C. However, in an alternative embodiment,it may be required that a user be confined to the same horizontal row ofpartitions, e.g. user Dave is mapped to partition 264D and therefore canalso only be mapped to partitions 264E and 264F (not partition 264B or264C). The sequence ID to which user Dave is mapped may still changebetween partitions 264D, 264E, and 264F.

In general, a series of consecutive adjacent events performed by asingle user may be partitioned into a plurality of disjoint datapartitions that are adjacent in time. For example, user Fred performs aprogression of events that are partitioned into two disjoint datapartitions: data partition 264A, which covers the events falling withintime period A; and data partition 264B, which covers the event fallingwithin adjacent time period B.

Mappings may be stored that collectively map each user to a respectivesequence ID in each data partition. The mappings may be stored as atable, e.g. a look-up-table (LUT). FIG. 6 illustrates an example of auser-to-sequence mapping LUT 305 corresponding to the mappings presentedin FIG. 5. For example, user Jane is assigned user ID 0010, and userJane's events are stored as sequence ID #2 in each of data partitions264A, 264B, and 264C. The table in FIG. 6 may be stored in the datastorage system 262 and/or in the memory 256 of the funnel query engine252. In some embodiments, the user ID may be hashed. Note that LUT 305is only an example. The mappings shown in LUT 305 may be captured inmemory in another manner instead.

By having multiple distinct and disjoint data partitions, e.g. datapartitions 264A-F, then parallel processing may be more easilyfacilitated. For example, the funnel query engine 252 may perform, inparallel, both the funnel query on data partition 264A and the funnelquery on data partition 264D, and then aggregate (e.g. sum) the results.As an example, assume that the funnel query is “During time period A,how many unique users visited the webpage for the product PuppyCalendar, and then subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar”. The funnelquery is performed on data partition 264A and two matches are returned:sequence ID #1 (Fred), and sequence ID #5 (Kate). In parallel, thefunnel query is performed on data partition 264D and one match isreturned: sequence ID #1 (Gord). The result is then summed: two matchesfrom data partition 264A, plus one match from data partition 264D,equals three matches in total. That is, during time period A, threeunique users visited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar, andthen subsequently bought a Puppy Calendar.

Returning to FIG. 4, in a variation the funnel query engine 252 and thedata storage system 262 may be the same entity, e.g. both implemented ona same server, possibly by a same processor and possibly using a samesingle allocation of memory. The memory 256 may be the same memory inwhich the data partitions (e.g. data partitions 264A-F) are stored.

Sequence Filtering Using a Bitmap

In some embodiments, a funnel query is performed by traversing each andevery sequence stored in a data partition during the relevant timeperiod in order to determine which sequences in that data partitioninclude the funnel. For example, assume for ease of explanation thatthere is a single data partition 264 storing all of the sequences duringa time period A, e.g. as in data partition 264 in FIG. 4. A funnel queryis received relating to time period A. To perform the funnel query, eachsequence in data partition 264 is traversed to determine whether thesequence includes the funnel, and if a sequence includes the funnel thena counter may be incremented. After all sequences in the data partition264 are traversed, the result of the counter reports how many uniqueusers (unique sequences) performed the funnel. The number of users thatdid not progress past each event may also be counted, e.g. 12,678 usersperformed the first event in the funnel, 125 of those users subsequentlyperformed the second event in the funnel, and 13 of those userssubsequently performed the final event in the funnel.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example set of sequences for a particular datapartition 264 for a particular time period A. There are N differentsequences, and each sequence stores a sequence of events. Inimplementation, each event may be stored as one or more numerical valuescorresponding to a description of the event, e.g. like at 303 in FIG. 5.However, for ease of explanation, in FIG. 7 the description of the eventitself is what is illustrated for each event. The user corresponding tosequence #1 performed the following time-ordered sequence of events:“visited the merchant's homepage” (event 312), then “navigated to thecalendar collection webpage” (event 314), then “visited the webpage forthe Kitten Calendar product” (event 316), then “navigated to thecalendar collection webpage” (event 318), then “visited the webpage forthe Puppy Calendar product” (event 320), and then “navigated to thecalendar collection webpage” (event 320). Sequences #2 to #N each storethe sequence of events performed by a respective different unique userduring time period A.

Assume that the following funnel query is to be performed: “During timeperiod A, how many unique users visited the merchant's homepage, thennavigated to the calendar collection, and then visited the webpage forthe product Puppy Calendar”. To answer the funnel query, each one of theN sequences in FIG. 7 is searched to determine whether or not thesequence includes the funnel. Sequence #1 is first searched and returnsa match: the user corresponding to sequence #1 visited the merchant'shomepage (event 312), then subsequently navigated to the calendarcollection (event 314), and then subsequently visited the webpage forthe product Puppy Calendar (event 320). The funnel is present insequence #1. Sequence #2 is next searched and also returns a matchbecause the funnel is also present in sequence #2. Sequence #3 is nextsearched and does not return a match because the funnel is not presentin sequence #3. Sequence #4 is next searched and also does not return amatch. Although all of the events are present in sequence #4, the timeorder is not correct because in sequence #4 the user visits the webpagefor the product Puppy Calendar first (e.g. maybe the user landeddirectly on the Puppy Calendar product page via a Facebook™ Ad).However, searching sequence #4 may result in a counter being incrementedthat tracks how many users performed just the first two events in thesequence because the user in sequence #4 visits the merchant's homepageand then subsequently navigates to the calendar collection. Searchingfor the funnel in each sequence continues until all N sequences havebeen searched.

In some embodiments, searching for a funnel in a sequence is performedby traversing the sequence event-by-event, starting at the first eventof the sequence and continuing until the funnel condition has beensatisfied or the last event in the sequence has been reached, whicheverhappens first. Traversing the sequence begins at the first event andproceeds event-by-event in a time order. If/when the first funnel eventis located, then the traversing continues, next looking for the secondfunnel event. If/when the second funnel event is located, then thetraversing continues, next looking for the third funnel event, and soon, until the last funnel event is located (a match) or the sequenceends.

Traversing each and every one of the N sequences to determine whichsequences include the funnel may be computationally intensive, which mayimpact the ability of the funnel query engine 252 to run the funnelquery in real-time or near real-time. Therefore, in some embodiments,information such as a bitmap is used to eliminate one or more sequencesin order to reduce the number of sequences that need to be traversedduring the funnel query. The bitmap may be generated prior to receivinga request to perform a funnel query, e.g. the bitmap may be generatedoffline. Then, when a request to perform a funnel query is received andthe funnel query is performed, the bitmap may be used to try toeliminate certain sequences and thereby eliminate the need to traversethose sequences during the funnel query.

For example, FIG. 8 illustrates a bitmap 332 corresponding to the event“user visits merchant's homepage”. The bitmap 332 is generated bysearching (e.g. traversing) each one of the N sequences in FIG. 7 todetermine whether or not the sequence includes the event “user visitsmerchant's homepage”. If the sequence includes the event, then thebitmap value corresponding that sequence is set to ‘1’. Otherwise, ifthe sequence does not include the event, then the bitmap valuecorresponding to that sequence is set to ‘0’. The mapping between bitposition and sequence ID may be preconfigured. For example, the mostsignificant bit (MSB) in the bitmap 332 may correspond to sequence #1,with each subsequent bit in the bitmap 332 corresponding to the nextsequence number, and with the least significant bit (LSB) correspondingto sequence #N. The bitmap 332 may therefore be N bits, each bitcorresponding to a respective different one of the N sequences. Althoughcomputational resources are required in order to generate the bitmap332, the bitmap 332 need not be generated in real-time, e.g. it may begenerated offline. Also, once the bitmap 332 is generated, it may beused by multiple subsequent funnel queries.

The bitmap 332 may be stored in data storage system 262 (e.g. separatefrom the data partition 264) and/or in memory 256 of the funnel queryengine 252. The memory footprint of the bitmap 332 is relatively smallbecause the bitmap itself is only N bits.

Assume again that the following funnel query is to be performed: “Duringtime period A, how many unique users visited the merchant's homepage,then navigated to the calendar collection, and then visited the webpagefor the product Puppy Calendar”. If a sequence in data partition 264 ofFIG. 7 does not include the event “user visits merchant's homepage”,then that sequence cannot include the funnel and therefore that sequencedoes not even have to be traversed. Therefore, the funnel query engine252 first consults the bitmap 332 of FIG. 8 to determine which sequenceshave a bit value equal to ‘1’, i.e. which sequences include the event“user visits merchant's homepage”. Then, only the sequences that includethe event are actually traversed to determine which ones of thosesequences include the funnel.

In some embodiments, multiple bitmaps may be stored, each onecorresponding to a respective different event. For every event that isin a funnel query and that has a bitmap, the bitmap may be used toeliminate sequences that do not include the event.

In some embodiments, every event in the data partition 262 has acorresponding bitmap. When a funnel query is received, the set ofbitmaps corresponding to the set of events in the funnel query may beused to identify the subset of sequences in the data partition 262 thatinclude all funnel events. Once the subset of sequences is identified,then only the sequences in the subset of sequences need to be traversedin order to determine which of those sequences satisfy thetime-sequential property of the funnel.

For example, FIG. 9 illustrates a plurality of bitmaps, each onecorresponding to a respective different event. Bitmap 332 corresponds tothe event “user visits merchant's homepage”. Bitmap 334 corresponds tothe event “user navigates to calendar collection”. Bitmap 336corresponds to the event “user visits the webpage for the Puppy Calendarproduct”. Bitmap 338 corresponds to the event “user visits the webpagefor the Kitten Calendar product”. Bitmap 340 corresponds to the event“user performs a search using the search box on the merchant's onlinestore”. In the particular example in FIG. 9, there is not a bitmapcorresponding to every event in the data partition 264 of FIG. 7, onlysome of the events.

Assume again that the following funnel query is to be performed: “Duringtime period A, how many unique users visited the merchant's homepage,then navigated to the calendar collection, and then visited the webpagefor the product Puppy Calendar”. The three funnel events in the funneleach have a respective bitmap. Specifically, the first funnel eventcorresponds to bitmap 332, the second funnel event corresponds to bitmap334, and the third funnel event corresponds to bitmap 336. Bitmaps 332,334, and 336 are therefore used by the funnel query engine 252 toeliminate the sequences that do not include all three funnel events. Forexample, bitmaps 332, 334, and 336 may be combined to form a singleresulting bitmap having N bits, where each bit position of the resultingbitmap stores the binary result of multiplying together the bits ofbitmaps 332, 334, and 336 at that position. For example, for each bitposition an AND gate may be used having three inputs, each inputcorresponding to the bit value of a respective different one of bitmaps332, 334, and 336 at that bit position. If a zero is present in a bitposition of any one of bitmaps 332, 334, and 336, then the resultingbitmap will also have a zero in that bit position. Any sequence having a‘ I’ in the resulting bitmap means that that sequence includes all threeevents. Therefore, only the sequences having a I′ in the resultingbitmap are traversed in order to determine which of those sequencessatisfy the time-sequential property of the funnel. For example,sequence #4 in FIG. 7 includes all the funnel events, but the funnel isnot present in sequence #4 because the events are not in the rightorder. Traversing sequence #4 reveals that sequence #4 does not includethe funnel.

Note that using one or more bitmaps to reduce the number of sequencesthat need to be traversed may preclude the possibility of the funnelquery returning how many users did not progress past each event in thefunnel. For example, in the example described immediately above, bitmaps332, 334, and 336 are combined to eliminate any sequences that do notinclude all three events “visited the merchant's homepage” and“navigated to the calendar collection” and “visited the webpage for theproduct Puppy Calendar”. Sequence #N−1 is therefore not traversedbecause it does not include the second funnel event “navigated to thecalendar collection”. However, traversing sequence #N−1 may revealuseful information: that the user visited the merchant's homepage butthen never subsequently navigated to the calendar collection. In someembodiments, to allow for the funnel query to also count how many usersfailed to progress past each event in the funnel, only the bitmapcorresponding to the entry event in the funnel (i.e. the first event inthe funnel) is used to eliminate sequences. If a sequence does not eveninclude the entry event, then there is no benefit in traversing thatsequence. In other embodiments, to allow for the funnel query to alsocount how many users failed to progress past each event in the funnel,the bitmaps corresponding to the events in the funnel (e.g. bitmaps 332,334, and 336 in the example above) are OR′d together on a bit-by-bitbasis to generate a resulting bitmap that only eliminates sequences thatdo not include any of the events. However, OR-ing together bitmaps maybe less efficient than simply using the bitmap corresponding to theentry event in the funnel (i.e. the first event in the funnel).

In some embodiments, it may be undesirable or impractical to generateand store a bitmap for every possible event, e.g. if there are a largenumber of unique events. Therefore, in some embodiments the funnel queryengine 252 only generates a bitmap for one or some events. As oneexample, the funnel query engine 252 may only generate a bitmap for rareevents, and/or for events that appear to be common in funnel queries.For example, a bitmap may be generated for any event that appears to bea common “entry point” (i.e. first funnel event) in a funnel query. Overtime, funnel queries may be monitored by the funnel query engine 252 toidentify common entry points or other common events. Once a common entrypoint or other common event is identified, then a bitmap may beconstructed for that event and used by subsequent funnel queries. Forexample, the funnel query engine 252 may track funnel queries over timeand identify that it is common for the entry point of a funnel (i.e. thefirst funnel event) to be “user visits merchant's homepage”. Bitmap 332may therefore be generated by the funnel query engine 252 and used forsubsequent funnel queries in which the entry point of the funnel is“user visits merchant's homepage”.

An event may be identified as “common” by the funnel query engine 252 ifthe number or percentage of funnel queries including that event exceedsa predetermined threshold over a predefined window. The window may bemeasured in terms of time or in terms of number of funnel queries. Anevent having a corresponding bitmap may no longer be identified as“common” and have its corresponding bitmap deleted from memory if thenumber or percentage of funnel queries including that event drops belowa predetermined threshold over a predefined window. For example, thefunnel query engine 252 may keep a running record of events present inthe previous one hundred funnel queries. As soon as the same entry eventoccurs more than fifteen times in the previous one hundred queries, thena bitmap is generated for that entry event and used for subsequentfunnel queries having that entry event. Subsequently, once that entryevent occurs less than five times in the previous one hundred funnelqueries, then the bitmap is deleted from memory.

Finally, although the bitmap filtering is described above in the contextof a funnel query such as “During time period A, how many unique usersperformed X, then Y, then Z”, the bitmap filtering also hasapplicability to other types of data queries performed over multiplesequences of events. For example, assume the data query is instead:During time period A, what is the most common series of events thatbegin with the event “Navigate to calendar collection” and end with theevent “Add Puppy Calendar to cart”? Bitmaps may be used to eliminate theneed to search any sequences that do not include both events. Forexample, if each event had a respective bitmap, then the two bitmaps maybe AND′d together to generate a resulting bitmap that only identifiessequences having both events. The sequences that include both events canthen be traversed to record each series of events that start with“Navigate to calendar collection” and end with “Add Puppy Calendar tocart”, and to track the most common series. For example, the results mayreveal that the most common series of events is “Navigate to calendarcollection” then “Visit Kitten Calendar product webpage” then “VisitPuppy Calendar product webpage” (which may have a link from the KittenCalendar product webpage), and then “Add Puppy Calendar to cart”. Asanother example, the data query may be “During time period A, how manyusers performed events X and Y”, in which case the bitmap filters may beused to provide the answer without even having to traverse a sequence,if there is a bitmap for event X and a bitmap for event Y.

FIG. 10 illustrates a computer-implemented method, according to oneembodiment. The method may be performed by a computing device, e.g. aprocessor such as processor 254 of funnel query engine 252.

At step 402, the processor accesses data stored in memory, e.g. in thememory of the data storage system 262. The data is stored as a pluralityof sequences. Each sequence of the plurality of sequences corresponds toa respective user, and each sequence of the plurality of sequencesrecords a respective set of events that were performed by the respectiveuser. An example is the data stored in data partition 264 in FIG. 4.

At step 404, the processor performs a query on the data to identifywhich users performed a series of particular events. The query may be afunnel query. The series of particular events are defined by the query,and the series of particular events include a target event. For example,the series of particular events may be: “visited the merchant'shomepage, then navigated to the calendar collection, and then visitedthe webpage for the product Puppy Calendar”, in which case there arethree events in the series of particular events (the event “visited themerchant's homepage”, the event “navigated to the calendar collection”,and the event “visited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar”). Thetarget event may be the first event in the particular series of events:“visited the merchant's homepage”.

Step 404 may include the following substeps, which are operationsperformed as part of the query.

At substep 404A, the processor obtains information that indicates, foreach sequence of the plurality of sequences, whether or not the sequenceincludes the target event. An example of such information is bitmap 332of FIG. 8.

At substep 404B, the processor uses the information to identify a subsetof the plurality of sequences for which each sequence of the subset ofthe plurality of sequences includes the target event. An example isbitmap 332 of FIG. 8 in which the presence of a ‘1’ in the bitmapindicates a sequence that includes the target event. The sequences thateach have a ‘1’ in the bitmap 332 form the subset of the plurality ofsequences.

At substep 404C, the processor searches for the series of particularevents in each sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences. Theprocessor may only search the subset of sequences and not the othersequences. For example, only the sequences having a ‘1’ in the bitmap332 are searched for the particular series of events “visited themerchant's homepage, then navigated to the calendar collection, and thenvisited the webpage for the product Puppy Calendar”.

In some embodiments, the method of FIG. 10 may include generating theinformation prior to performing the query. For example, the bitmap 332of FIG. 8 may be generated prior to performing a query on the data. Insome embodiments, the information is generated by performing operationsincluding: searching each sequence of the plurality of sequences for thetarget event; and for each sequence of the plurality of sequences:recording whether or not the target event was found in the sequence.

In some embodiments, searching for the series of particular events inthe subset of the sequences in substep 404C may include, for eachsequence of the subset of the sequences: traversing the sequenceevent-by-event in time consecutive order of the events. The traversingmay include first searching for a first event of the series of theevents, and if the first event is found, then continuing the traversingsearching next for a second event of the series of events.

In some embodiments, the method of FIG. 10 may further include: countinghow many sequences of the subset of sequences includes the series ofparticular events, and/or counting how many sequences of the subset ofthe sequences includes a first event of the series of particular eventsand not a subsequent second event of the series of particular events.

In some embodiments, the target event in the method of FIG. 10 is thefirst event (i.e. “entry event”) of the series of particular events.

In some embodiments, in the method of FIG. 10: the target event is afirst target event; the series of particular events also includes asecond target event; the information is a first bitmap that indicates,for each sequence of the plurality of sequences, whether or not thesequence includes the first target event; a second bitmap is obtainedthat indicates, for each sequence of the plurality of sequences, whetheror not the sequence includes the second target event; the second bitmapis also used to identify the subset of the plurality of sequences; andeach sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences includes boththe first target event and the second target event. For example thefirst bitmap may be bitmap 332 of FIG. 9 and the second bitmap may bebitmap 334 of FIG. 9, and both bitmaps are used (e.g. AND′d together ona bit-by-bit basis) to identify the subset of sequences that onlyinclude both the events “visited the merchant's homepage” and “navigatedto the calendar collection”.

In some embodiments, the method of FIG. 10 may further include:receiving x queries over time; identifying a candidate event that ispresent in each of at least y≤x of the x queries; and in response to thecandidate event being present in each of at least y of the x queries:searching each sequence of the plurality of sequences for the candidateevent and, for each sequence of the plurality of sequences, recordingwhether or not the candidate event was found in the sequence. Forexample, as explained earlier, an event may be identified as “common” ifthe number (y) of funnel queries including that event exceeds apredetermined threshold, in which case a bitmap may be generated forthat event. In some embodiments, the candidate event is always a firstevent (i.e. “entry event”) in each of the queries in which the candidateevent is present.

In some embodiments, in the method of FIG. 10, for each sequence of theplurality of sequences, the respective set of events recorded by thesequence are stored consecutively in order of time. In some embodiments,the series of particular events are also consecutive in order of time.In some embodiments, each sequence of the plurality of sequencescorresponds to a different user. In some embodiments, each event isrecorded as one or more numerical values.

Funnel Queries Covering Multiple Time Periods

As explained earlier in relation to FIG. 5, the data storage system 262may store multiple data partitions, each data partition covering arespective different time period and/or a respective different set ofusers. For example, FIG. 5 illustrates six different data partitions264A-264F stored for a particular merchant. Three adjacent time periodsare covered: time period A, time period B, and time period C. Each oneof the data partitions 264A-264F stores a different set of sequences.The sequences in one data partition do not overlap with the sequences inany other data partition. For example, data partition 264A stores fivedifferent sequences, each one having a respective sequence ID and eachone storing the events performed by a respective user during time periodA. Data partition 264D stores two different sequences, each one alsohaving a respective sequence ID and each one also storing the eventsperformed by a respective user during time period A. However, thesequences in data partition 264A are different from the sequences indata partition 264D. In particular, in time period A there were sevenunique users, each one performing a respective sequence of events. Fiveof the users have their sequences stored in data partition 264A, and theother two users have their sequence stored in data partition 264D. Ingeneral, a user may be mapped to different sequence IDs across differentpartitions. An example mapping between users and sequence IDs isillustrated in FIG. 5. For example, during time period A, user Daveperforms the sequence of events stored as sequence ID #2 in datapartition 264D. During time period B, user Dave performs the sequence ofevents stored as sequence ID #2 in data partition 264E. During timeperiod C, user Dave performs the sequence of events stored as sequenceID #4 in data partition 264C. In general, a series of adjacentconsecutive events performed by a single user may therefore bepartitioned into a plurality of disjoint data partitions that areadjacent in time. For example, user Dave performs a progression ofevents that are partitioned into three disjoint data partitions: datapartition 264D, which covers the events performed by Dave that fallwithin time period A; data partition 264E, which covers the eventsperformed by Dave that fall within adjacent time period B; and datapartition 264C, which covers the event performed by Dave that fallwithin adjacent time period C.

As explained earlier, by having multiple distinct and disjoint datapartitions, e.g. data partitions 264A-F, then parallel processing may bemore easily facilitated. For example, the funnel query engine 252 mayperform, in parallel, both the funnel query on data partition 264A andthe funnel query on data partition 264D, and then aggregate (e.g. sum)the results. Another possible benefit is also achieved, which will beexplained as follows.

In some implementations the longer a sequence in a data partition, thelonger it takes to traverse that sequence to search for a funnel orfunnel event. Also, although each event in a sequence may betimestamped, the compact storage of the events in the sequence may besuch that there is not a clear boundary between different partitions oftime in the sequence. For example, it may not be possible to jump to thestart of a particular day in the sequence and begin traversing thesequence at that point. Instead, in some implementations the sequencemay need to be traversed from the beginning, i.e. beginning from thefirst event in the sequence. If a sequence in a single data partitionstores the last 30 days of events for a user, but the funnel query onlyrequires searching the last 2 days of events, then additional time maybe incurred due to having to traverse a 30-day sequence for only 2-days'worth of events. This additional time incurred may impact the ability ofthe funnel query engine 252 to run the funnel query in real-time or nearreal-time. Therefore, in some embodiments, like in FIG. 5, multiple datapartitions are stored that are disjoint in time. For example, in FIG. 5,data partition 264A covers time period A, data partition 264B coversadjacent time period B, and data partition 264C covers adjacent timeperiod C. In general, a time period covered by a data partition may berelatively short, e.g. one day. Then, if a funnel query is to beperformed that covers only a short period of time, the correspondingdata partition(s) may be more quickly traversed compared to if a datapartition had to be traversed that covered a long period of time.

In some embodiments, the time period covered by a data partition may beequal to the minimum amount of time required to be covered by a funnelquery. For example, if the funnel query engine 252 requires a funnelquery request from a device to minimally cover a period of time spanningat least one day, then time periods A, B, and C may each be one day inlength, e.g. time period A may cover May 1, 2019, time period B maycover May 2, 2019, and time period C may cover May 3, 2019. In someembodiments, the time period covered by a data partition may be equal tothe length of time regularly (or most often) covered by a funnel query.For example, if most funnel query requests received by the funnel queryengine 252 cover a period of the last seven days (e.g. “In the lastseven days, how many unique users performed X, then Y, then Z”), thentime periods A, B, and C may each be seven days in length, e.g. timeperiod A may cover May 5-11, 2019, time period B may cover May 12-18,2019, and time period C may cover May 19-25, 2019.

If a funnel query is to be performed that covers a period of timespanning multiple data partitions, then mappings in memory may be usedto track the funnel event each user is at in the funnel at the start ofeach time period corresponding to a data partition. An example will beexplained below.

FIG. 11 illustrates a series of events performed by ten different usersover three days, according to one embodiment. For ease of explanation,an event is represented using a letter. For example, the letter X is oneevent (e.g. “user lands on Puppy Calendar product webpage”), the letterY is another event (e.g. “user adds Puppy Calendar product to cart”),etc. The events are actually stored as a set of one or more numericalvalues, with each numerical value having a predefined mapping tounderstandable actions and information, e.g. as discussed earlier.

Different users perform different events over the course of the threeday period. For example, user Fred performs a series of threeconsecutive events on May 1, 2019, followed by one event on May 2, 2019,and no events on May 3, 2019. As another example, user Jane performs twoconsecutive events on May 1, 2019, followed by four consecutive eventson May 2, 2019, and followed by two consecutive events on May 3, 2019.The events illustrated in FIG. 11 are stored in a plurality of datapartitions. In the following example, it will be assumed that the eventsillustrated in FIG. 11 are stored in data partitions 264A-F in themanner shown in FIG. 5. As explained earlier, look-up-table 305 in FIG.6 stores mappings that identify the user that corresponds to eachsequence ID in each of data partitions 264A-F of FIG. 5.

Assume that the following funnel query is to be performed: “During thetime period of May 1-3, 2019, how many unique users performed event X,then event Y, and then event Z”. The funnel query covers a period oftime that spans multiple data partitions, and so memory is used to trackthe funnel event each user is at in the funnel at the start of each timeperiod corresponding to a data partition. FIG. 12 illustrates themappings in the form of a look-up-table (LUT) 502 that tracks the funnelevent each user is at in the funnel at the start of each time period,according to one embodiment. The LUT 502 is shown at three differentpoints in time in FIG. 12: the beginning of the funnel query, the end ofMay 1, 2019, and the end of May 2, 2019. The LUT 502 may be stored inmemory of the data storage system 262 and/or in memory 256 of the funnelquery engine 252. In some embodiments, the user ID may be hashed. InFIG. 12, a single LUT 502 is shown that tracks the funnel event for eachuser. In an alternative implementation, there may instead be multipleLUTs, each LUT corresponding to a respective different subset of theusers. For example, in some implementations a user may be confined tothe same horizontal row of partitions, e.g. as explained earlier inrelation to FIG. 5, in which case LUT 502 may instead be implemented asmultiple LUTs: one for each horizontal row of partitions (e.g. one LUTfor the users in partitions 264A, 264B, and 264C of FIG. 5, and anotherLUT for the users in partitions 264D, 264E, and 264F of FIG. 5).

At the beginning of the funnel query, the funnel query engine 252determines that performing the funnel query requires sequentiallytraversing multiple data partitions because the funnel query covers aperiod of time that spans multiple data partitions. The funnel queryengine 252 therefore generates the LUT 502, so that it can be used torecord the mapping between each user and the funnel event each user isat in the funnel at the start of each time period corresponding to adata partition. Initially, none of the data partitions 264A-F have beensearched yet for the funnel, and so the LUT 502 is initialized at thebeginning to indicate, for each user, that no funnel event has beenfound yet for that user. This indication is shown by the presence of adash, e.g. dash 504 in FIG. 5. Note that in an alternative embodiment,the LUT 502 need not be initialized with empty values for every possibleuser, but instead a user may be dynamically added to the LUT 502 only ifthe user is determined to have performed the first event in the funnel.This may avoid wasting memory on users not even involved in the funnelresult. In this alternative embodiment, each dash in FIG. 12 may insteadbe a non-existing entry in the LUT 502.

The funnel query engine 252 first traverses the sequences thatcorrespond to the first time period (May 1, 2019) to begin searching forthe funnel for each user. Specifically, data partitions 264A and 264Dare first searched because these data partitions correspond to the firsttime period May 1, 2019. Data partitions 264A and 264D may be searchedin parallel. Searching data partitions 264A and 264D reveals some of thefunnel events for some of the users. For example, for user Fred, thefunnel events X and Y are found on May 1, 2019, which means that onlythe funnel event Z needs to now be found for Fred on May 2-3, 2019. Atthe end of the first time period (i.e. at the end of May 1, 2019), theLUT 502 is updated to indicate that the most recent funnel event foundfor user Fred is Y, as shown at 506 in FIG. 12. Searching datapartitions 264A and 264D also reveals that funnel event X was found forusers Amy, Kate, Gord, and Dave, and so this is also stored in LUT 502,as shown at 508 in FIG. 12.

The funnel query engine 252 next traverses the sequences that correspondto the second time period (May 2, 2019) to continue searching for thefunnel for each user. Specifically, data partitions 264B and 264E arenext searched because these data partitions correspond to the secondtime period May 2, 2019. Data partitions 264B and 264E may be searchedin parallel. For each sequence in data partition 264B and 264E, thefollowing steps are performed by the funnel query engine 252: (1) theuser corresponding to the sequence ID is determined, e.g. using themapping in FIG. 6; (2) the LUT 502 of FIG. 12 is consulted to determinethe most recent funnel event in the funnel found for that user; and (3)then the sequence is traversed beginning at the start of the sequence,and starting by looking for the next event in the funnel that needs tobe found for the user. For example, sequence #1 in data partition 264Bcorresponds to user Fred, and according to the LUT 502 the most recentfunnel event found for user Fred was event Y. Sequence #1 of datapartition 264B is therefore traversed to search for next funnel event Z.As another example, sequence #2 in data partition 264E corresponds touser Dave, and according to the LUT 502 the most recent funnel eventfound for user Dave was event X. Sequence #2 of data partition 264E istherefore traversed to search for next funnel event Y. If TrailDB™ isused to implement the data partitions 264A-F, then traversing eachsequence (i.e. trail) may be performed using an EventFilter having abatch size set to one. The EventFilter is initially set to search forthe appropriate funnel event based on the LUT 502. If the funnel eventis found, then traversing the trail continues with the EventFilterupdated to look for the next funnel event, and so on.

Searching data partitions 264B and 264E reveals some more funnel eventsfor some of the users. For example, for user Jane the funnel events Xand Y are found on May 2, 2019, which means that only the funnel event Zneeds to now be found for Jane on May 3, 2019. At the end of the secondtime period (i.e. at the end of May 2, 2019), the LUT 502 is updated toindicate that the most recent funnel event found for user Jane is Y, asshown at 510 in FIG. 12. As another example, for user Dave the remainingfunnel events Y and Z are found on May 3, 2019. The funnel is thereforepresent and has been found for Dave. Any sequence corresponding toevents performed by Dave on May 3, 2019, does not need to be searched.The LUT 502 is updated to indicate that the funnel has been found foruser Dave, e.g. as shown at 512 in FIG. 12. FIG. 12 shows the state ofthe LUT 502 at the end of May 2, 2019.

The funnel query engine 252 next traverses the sequences that correspondto the third time period (May 3, 2019) to continue searching for thefunnel for each user. Specifically, data partitions 264C and 264F arenext searched because these data partitions correspond to the third timeperiod May 3, 2019. Data partitions 264C and 264F may be searched inparallel. For each sequence in data partition 264C and 264F, thefollowing steps are performed by the funnel query engine 252: (1) theuser corresponding to the sequence ID is determined, e.g. using themapping in FIG. 6; (2) the LUT 502 of FIG. 12 is consulted to determinethe most recent funnel event in the funnel found for that user; and (3)then the sequence is traversed beginning at the start of the sequence,and starting by looking for the next event in the funnel that needs tobe found for the user. If the funnel has already been found for a user,then the sequence for that user does not need to be searched. Forexample, sequence #4 in data partition 264C corresponds to user Dave,and LUT 502 indicates at 512 that the funnel has already been found foruser Dave, and therefore sequence #4 in data partition 264C does notneed to be searched.

In some implementations, a data partition may be referred to as a “timeshard”, and performing a funnel query over multiple data partitions,each covering a different time period, may be referred to as “stitchingtogether” the time shards.

By storing events across multiple discrete data partitions, eachcovering a relatively short time period, a possible benefit is achievedin that it may be faster to perform a funnel query that spans a shortperiod of time. Moreover, to accommodate funnel queries that do not spana short period of time, memory such as LUT 502 may be used to track thefunnel event each user is at in the funnel at the start of each timeperiod corresponding to a data partition. However, using the LUT 502 hasa cost associated with it: the LUT 502 must be generated, updated at theend of a time period, and consulted at the start of the next timeperiod. If a funnel query is performed that spans many time periods,then the speed of the funnel query may be negatively impacted by havingto access the LUT 502 multiple times. Therefore, in some embodiments,data partitions covering different time durations are stored, e.g. bothdata partitions that cover a shorter period of time and data partitionsthat cover a longer period of time. When a funnel query is to beperformed that covers a particular duration of time, the funnel query isperformed on the fewest number of data partitions possible.

As one example, every day three data partitions may be created andstored: (i) one covering the events of that day; (ii) another one thatis a merge of the data partitions of the previous seven days; and (iii)another one that is a merge of the data partitions of the previous 30days. Then, when a funnel query is received covering a particular numberof days, the funnel query is performed on the fewest number of datapartitions possible. For example, if the funnel query covers theprevious 30 days, then the 30-day data partition is used. As anotherexample, if the funnel query covers the previous 9 days, then three datapartitions are used: the one storing the events of the previous 7 days,the one storing the events of 8 days ago, and the one storing the eventsof 9 days ago.

Note that the bitmap filtering described earlier, e.g., in relation toFIGS. 8-10, may be combined with any of the embodiments described above.For example, a bitmap corresponding to entry event X may be used toeliminate any users that do not include event X, e.g. users Ted and Jenin FIG. 11. The LUT 502 would therefore not need to include Ted and Jen,and any sequences corresponding to Ted or Jen would not need to besearched.

FIG. 13 illustrates a computer-implemented method, according to oneembodiment. The method may be performed by a computing device, e.g. aprocessor such as processor 254 of funnel query engine 252.

At step 602, the processor accesses data stored in memory. The data isstored in a plurality of data partitions in the memory. Each datapartition of the plurality of data partitions includes a respective setof sequences. Each sequence of the respective set of sequencescorresponds to a respective user, and each sequence of the respectiveset of sequences records a respective set of events that were performedby the respective user. An example is data partitions 264A-F of FIG. 5.

At step 604, the processor performs a query on the data to identifywhich ones of a plurality of users performed a series of particularevents. The query may be a funnel query. The series of particular eventsare defined by the query, and the series of particular events include afirst event and a subsequent second event. For example, the series ofparticular events may be: “X, then Y, and then Z”, in which case thereare three events in the series of particular events (the event “X”, theevent “Y”, and the event “Z”). The first event may be the entry event,i.e. “X”, and the subsequent second event may be the next event “Y”.

Step 604 may include the following substeps, which are operationsperformed as part of the query.

At substep 604A, the processor searches for the series of particularevents in each of at least some of the sequences in a first datapartition. For example, the processor may search each of the sequencesin data partition 264D for the particular series of events “X, then Y,then Z”.

At substep 604B, in response to determining that the first event islocated in a particular sequence in the first data partition:determining a particular user corresponding to the particular sequence,and storing a mapping indicating that the first event was found for theparticular user. For example, if the first event is the entry event “X”,then entry event “X” is found for sequence #1 in data partition 264D ofFIG. 5. Sequence #1 in data partition 264D corresponds to user Gord (asper table 305 of FIG. 6), and so table 502 of FIG. 12 is updated toindicate the mapping that event X was found for Gord (see 508 of FIG.12).

At substep 604C, the processor searches at least some of the sequencesin a second data partition, including: identifying that a given sequencein the second data partition corresponds to the particular user,accessing the mapping to determine that the first event was alreadyfound for the particular user, and beginning searching the givensequence in the second data partition for the subsequent second event.In some embodiments, the given sequence is not searched for the firstevent. For example, the second data partition may be data partition264E. The sequences in data partition 264E are searched. A givensequence (sequence #1 in this example) in data partition 264Ecorresponds to user Gord. The mapping in table 502 of FIG. 12 indicatesthat first event “X” was already found for user Gord. Therefore,sequence #1 in data partition 264E is searched for subsequence secondevent “Y”. Sequence #1 in data partition 264E is not searched for thefirst event “X” because the first event has already been found for userGord.

In some embodiments, the mapping is one of a plurality of mappings, andthe plurality of mappings collectively indicate which one or more of theparticular events, if any, have been found for each user of theplurality of users. An example is table 502 in FIG. 12. Each row oftable 502 is one mapping.

In some embodiments, the plurality of mappings is in the form of a tablethat stores, for each user of the plurality of users, one of thefollowing: (1) an indication that none of the particular events has beenfound for the user or (2) an indication that all of the particularevents have been found for the user or (3) an indication of a mostrecent event that is one of the particular events and that has beenfound for the user. For example, reference character 504 of FIG. 12shows an indication that none of the particular events has been foundfor user Fred, reference character 512 of FIG. 12 shows an indicationthat all of the particular events have been found for user Dave, andreference character 506 of FIG. 12 shows an indication of a most recentevent (“Y”) that is one of the particular events and that has been foundfor user Fred.

In some embodiments, the method further includes: determining from thetable that all of the particular events have been found for a given userthat is different from the particular user; and in response notsearching the sequence in the second data partition that corresponds tothe given user. For example, reference character 512 of FIG. 12indicates that all of the events in the funnel have been found for userDave, and so any subsequent sequence corresponding to user Dave in asubsequent data partition is not searched because the funnel has alreadybeen found for user Dave.

In some embodiments, the method of FIG. 13 further includes storinginformation indicating the respective user corresponding to eachsequence in the first data partition and the respective usercorresponding to each sequence in the second data partition, and theinformation is used to identify that the given sequence in the seconddata partition corresponds to the particular user. An example of suchinformation is table 305 of FIG. 6, which can be used to identify that agiven sequence in a given data partition corresponds to a particularuser. In some embodiments, a sequence ID of the particular sequence inthe first data partition is different from the sequence ID of the givensequence in the second data partition (e.g. user Dave corresponds tosequence #2 in data partition 264E and user Dave corresponds to sequence#4 in data partition 264C).

In some embodiments, searching for the series of particular events ineach of at least some of the sequences in the first data partitionincludes, for each sequence of the at least some of the sequences in thefirst data partition: traversing the sequence event-by-event in timeconsecutive order of the events, the traversing including searching forthe first event, and if the first event is found, then continuing thetraversing searching next for the subsequent second event.

In some embodiments, the first data partition covers a first period oftime, and the second data partition covers a second period. The secondperiod of time may be non-overlapping with the first period of time. Thesecond period of time may begin later than the first period of time. Thesecond period of time may begin adjacent to the first period of time.For example, the period of time B covered by data partition 264E isnon-overlapping, later than, and adjacent to the period of time Acovered by data partition 264D. In some embodiments, the first period oftime and the second period of time may have different time durations(e.g. period of time B may be a different duration compared to period oftime A).

In some embodiments, a third data partition may be generated by mergingthe first data partition and the second data partition, and a subsequentquery may be performed in which the third data partition is searchedinstead of the first data partition or the second data partition. Forexample, the first data partition and the second data partition may eachcover one day. These two data partitions may be merged along with otherdata partitions to cover a period of seven consecutive days. Asubsequent funnel query may then be performed on the new data partition.

In some embodiments, performing the query in FIG. 13 may include:obtaining information that indicates, for each sequence in the firstdata partition, whether or not the sequence includes the first event;and avoiding searching for the series of particular events in eachsequence in the first data partition for which the information indicatesthat the sequence does not include the first event. An example of suchinformation is bitmap 332 in FIG. 8. More generally, the method of FIG.13 may be combined with any of the bitmap filtering embodimentsdescribed herein.

In some embodiments, for each sequence of the respective set ofsequences, the respective set of events recorded by the sequence arestored consecutively in order of time. In some embodiments, the seriesof particular events are also consecutive in order of time. In someembodiments, each event is recorded as one or more numerical values.

Merchant User Experience

By implementing the bitmap filtering described above, e.g. in relationto FIGS. 7 to 10, and/or by implementing disjoint data partitionscovering multiple time periods with the LUT described above, e.g. inrelation to FIGS. 11 to 13, then it may be possible to perform funnelqueries in real-time or near real-time. In an e-commerce application, insome embodiments the merchant may have the ability to run custom funnelqueries with results returned in real-time or near real-time.

FIG. 14 illustrates a user interface 702 of a merchant device, accordingto one embodiment. When the “Reports” tab 704 is selected, an interfacedisplays that allows for the merchant to generate a custom funnel. Theinterface includes a library of possible events 706, from which eventscan be dragged and dropped into a box 708 in any order to create acustom funnel query of interest to the merchant. The library of possibleevents 706 may be pre-defined and fixed, or possibly also custom createdby the merchant. Once the custom funnel request is created, it may betransmitted to the funnel query engine 252 by the merchant selecting thesubmit button 710. The results of the funnel query are then returned tothe merchant, e.g. as shown at 712 in FIG. 15.

In some embodiments, a funnel query may be automatically re-executed ona periodic basis to refresh the results of the query for the merchant,or the results may be refreshed at the request of the merchant, e.g. bythe merchant selecting button 714 of FIG. 15.

CONCLUSION

Although the present invention has been described with reference tospecific features and embodiments thereof, various modifications andcombinations can be made thereto without departing from the invention.The description and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded simply asan illustration of some embodiments of the invention as defined by theappended claims, and are contemplated to cover any and allmodifications, variations, combinations or equivalents that fall withinthe scope of the present invention. Therefore, although the presentinvention and its advantages have been described in detail, variouschanges, substitutions and alterations can be made herein withoutdeparting from the invention as defined by the appended claims.Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine,manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps describedin the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps,presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantiallythe same function or achieve substantially the same result as thecorresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according tothe present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended toinclude within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.

Moreover, any module, component, or device exemplified herein thatexecutes instructions may include or otherwise have access to anon-transitory computer/processor readable storage medium or media forstorage of information, such as computer/processor readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and/or other data. Anon-exhaustive list of examples of non-transitory computer/processorreadable storage media includes magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, optical diskssuch as compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital video discs ordigital versatile disc (DVDs), Blu-ray Disc™, or other optical storage,volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implementedin any method or technology, random-access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology. Any suchnon-transitory computer/processor storage media may be part of a deviceor accessible or connectable thereto. Any application or module hereindescribed may be implemented using computer/processorreadable/executable instructions that may be stored or otherwise held bysuch non-transitory computer/processor readable storage media.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: accessing data stored inmemory, the data stored as a plurality of sequences, wherein eachsequence of the plurality of sequences corresponds to a respective user,and each sequence of the plurality of sequences records a respective setof events that were performed by the respective user; performing a queryon the data to identify which users performed a series of particularevents, the series of particular events being defined by the query, andthe series of particular events including a target event; whereinperforming the query includes: obtaining information that indicates, foreach sequence of the plurality of sequences, whether or not the sequenceincludes the target event; using the information to identify a subset ofthe plurality of sequences for which each sequence of the subset of theplurality of sequences includes the target event; and searching for theseries of particular events in each sequence of the subset of theplurality of sequences.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the method further comprises generating the information prior toperforming the query, and wherein the information is generated byperforming operations including: searching each sequence of theplurality of sequences for the target event; and for each sequence ofthe plurality of sequences: recording whether or not the target eventwas found in the sequence.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein searching for the series of particular events in the subsetof the sequences includes, for each sequence of the subset of thesequences: traversing the sequence event-by-event in time consecutiveorder of the events, the traversing including first searching for afirst event of the series of the events, and if the first event isfound, then continuing the traversing searching next for a second eventof the series of events.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising: counting how many sequences of the subset ofsequences includes the series of particular events; and counting howmany sequences of the subset of the sequences includes a first event ofthe series of particular events and not a subsequent second event of theseries of particular events.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein the target event is a first event of the series of particularevents.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thetarget event is a first target event, wherein the series of particularevents also includes a second target event, wherein the information is afirst bitmap that indicates, for each sequence of the plurality ofsequences, whether or not the sequence includes the first target event,wherein a second bitmap is obtained that indicates, for each sequence ofthe plurality of sequences, whether or not the sequence includes thesecond target event, wherein the second bitmap is also used to identifythe subset of the plurality of sequences, and wherein each sequence ofthe subset of the plurality of sequences includes both the first targetevent and the second target event.
 7. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving x queries over time; identifyinga candidate event that is present in each of at least y≤x of the xqueries; and in response to the candidate event being present in each ofat least y of the x queries: searching each sequence of the plurality ofsequences for the candidate event and, for each sequence of theplurality of sequences, recording whether or not the candidate event wasfound in the sequence.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7,wherein the candidate event is always a first event in each of thequeries in which the candidate event is present.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein for each sequence of theplurality of sequences, the respective set of events recorded by thesequence are stored consecutively in order of time, and the series ofparticular events are also consecutive in order of time.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein each sequence of theplurality of sequences corresponds to a different user, and wherein eachevent is recorded as one or more numerical values.
 11. A systemcomprising: a memory to store data, the data stored as a plurality ofsequences, wherein each sequence of the plurality of sequencescorresponds to a respective user, and each sequence of the plurality ofsequences records a respective set of events that were performed by therespective user; a processor to perform a query on the data to identifywhich users performed a series of particular events, the series ofparticular events being defined by the query, and the series ofparticular events including a target event; wherein the processor is toperform the query by performing operations including: obtaininginformation that indicates, for each sequence of the plurality ofsequences, whether or not the sequence includes the target event; usingthe information to identify a subset of the plurality of sequences forwhich each sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences includesthe target event; and searching for the series of particular events ineach sequence of the subset of the plurality of sequences.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the processor is further to: generate theinformation prior to performing the query; and wherein the processor isto generate the information by performing operations including:searching each sequence of the plurality of sequences for the targetevent; and for each sequence of the plurality of sequences: recordingwhether or not the target event was found in the sequence.
 13. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein searching for the series of particularevents in the subset of the sequences includes, for each sequence of thesubset of the sequences: traversing the sequence event-by-event in timeconsecutive order of the events, the traversing including firstsearching for a first event of the series of the events, and if thefirst event is found, then continuing the traversing searching next fora second event of the series of events.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the processor is further to: count how many sequences of thesubset of sequences includes the series of particular events; and counthow many sequences of the subset of the sequences includes a first eventof the series of particular events and not a subsequent second event ofthe series of particular events.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein thetarget event is a first event of the series of particular events. 16.The system of claim 11, wherein the target event is a first targetevent, wherein the series of particular events also includes a secondtarget event, wherein the information is a first bitmap that indicates,for each sequence of the plurality of sequences, whether or not thesequence includes the first target event, wherein the processor is toobtain a second bitmap that indicates, for each sequence of theplurality of sequences, whether or not the sequence includes the secondtarget event, wherein the second bitmap is also used to identify thesubset of the plurality of sequences, and wherein each sequence of thesubset of the plurality of sequences includes both the first targetevent and the second target event.
 17. The system of claim 11, whereinthe processor is further to: receive x queries over time; identify acandidate event that is present in each of at least y≤x of the xqueries; and in response to the candidate event being present in each ofat least y of the x queries: search each sequence of the plurality ofsequences for the candidate event and, for each sequence of theplurality of sequences, record whether or not the candidate event wasfound in the sequence.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the candidateevent is always a first event in each of the queries in which thecandidate event is present.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein for eachsequence of the plurality of sequences, the respective set of eventsrecorded by the sequence are stored consecutively in order of time, andthe series of particular events are also consecutive in order of time.20. The system of claim 19, wherein each sequence of the plurality ofsequences corresponds to a different user, and wherein each event isrecorded as one or more numerical values.